Chapter Two: Five Hundred at a Time

After confirming that Cladashi had left, Xia Xiu slowly began reviewing the memory transmission.

They were all ancient styles of occult ritual arrays, already out of step with Terra’s current mainstream occult structures. For this woman, a supposed reformist within the Church of Flesh, to still use such obsolete array structures only showed how little she had to offer in the way of progress.

A ritual array is a geometric structure built by drawing patterns to construct occult formulas, thereby obtaining controllable output.

Across different civilizations and cultures, occult array systems take on a bewildering variety of forms, but under Terra’s modern standardized framework for occult research, array theory has also been standardized, and its functional components are simply divided into four parts: the occult source structure, the guiding structure, the effect structure, and the backflow correction structure.

The ritual array Cladashi used for blood sacrifice was already an almost-discarded relic even within the Church of Flesh. It still clung to the outdated notion that the basic structure of an array could be crudely summarized as a layered form centered on the power-supplying core, usually concentric circles.

That was imprecise; in most cases, one could even say it was wrong. What era are we in, and you are still drawing circles? Do you think you are Hohenheim?

Though, that suited me perfectly.

A dazzling smile spread across Xia Xiu’s face.

Woman, occult arts are very dangerous things. One misstep, and there is no return from ruin.

Clap, clap, clap.

Xia Xiu clapped his hands, and the boys around him, each identical to him in appearance, turned toward him in unison. He smiled at his own kind and said:

“Begin setting up the ritual array, according to the master’s command.”

“Yes.”

BIO beings did not need sleep, nor did they need food. They consumed EVE particles, so these creatures were still cheap labor.

After a night of frantic work, the ritual array for the blood sacrifice had been largely completed.

At dawn, Cladashi was carried down from the living room by a handsome, muscular man. She wore a pink nightgown, her gaze was dazed, and the dark circles under her eyes were shockingly heavy.

Xia Xiu noticed the mark on the man’s neck as he held her.

This woman really knew how to play.

“CC, take me to bathe. D-222, bring me my ceremonial gown.”

“Yes.”

D-222 was a handsome older man with a fine head of white hair. He followed respectfully behind Cladashi.

Half an hour later, Cladashi appeared before Xia Xiu in full ceremonial dress. Her face was flushed with a peach-colored bloom, while Xia Xiu stared at the new mark on D-222’s neck and fell into speechless silence.

Cladashi regarded the ritual array before her. At its center was the core occult source structure, fashioned from materials of many colors, a circle edged with countless intricate patterns. From it radiated ten straight lines outward, each connected to a smaller circle made of mercury.

“The ten of you, stand on the branches.”

“Yes.”

Xia Xiu and his counterparts obediently stood within the mercury rings. Cladashi positioned herself at the center of the inner circle, then began her sacrifice before the statue of Lavata.

“I have gazed upon the faceless one, upon the boundless servants that turn over in its depths.
Their master is blind, castrated by our words and intent.
He sings songs of disorder and shall return no more.
These dreadful spirits are unworthy of our love; offer no sacrifice until the stars align…”

The mark of Lavata appeared once more upon Cladashi’s hand. She chanted like one possessed, the mark in her palm growing ever more crimson.

“Here, I shall offer my sacrifice: blood of the holy lineage from the cathedral—Abraham.”

This woman really was courting disaster. The heavenly lineage, the blood of Abraham—she actually dared to lay claim to it. If this got out, the cathedral’s Inquisition would erase her in an instant.

Ah, but this woman had already been erased by a heretic hunter after the matter came to light. Even her soul medium had been used as fuel, burning and shining within the Sea of Ether.

“Oh great Lavata, grant me the power to distort the present world.
Let my spirit transcend, let me ascend into the Sea of Ether.
I shall bow beneath the feet of Jan and yours, and kiss your soles.”

Just as I thought. This woman wanted to become an occultist.

To become an occultist, one had to undergo spiritual sublimation, casting one’s soul medium into the transcendent source, the Sea of Ether, and thereby forming one’s own field to gain the power to distort reality.

The statue of Lavata began to change. She opened her eyes and looked down upon the devout believer before her.

Seeing the statue come alive, Cladashi was overcome with excitement. Just as she was about to speak her wish and offer her sacrifice, the mutation occurred.

“Aaaah——”

Lavata let out a shriek so piercing it seemed to tear the air. Blood ran from her eyes as she glared in hatred at the woman, now frozen in terror before her.

Cladashi was stunned by the sudden turn of events. Her face went pale, and her lips trembled uncontrollably. She wanted to flee, but found she could not move at all.

What was going on?!

“If you seek treasure, omnipotence, fame—if you would conquer and tyrannize men—then begone, and return to the shadows of your black ambition, knowing you cannot escape our light.
But if you seek to learn wisdom—to shatter the chains of servitude, to perceive the potential of mankind—then I shall embrace you as blood kin, and teach you the path of all flesh.”

At that moment, the ritual array beneath Cladashi’s feet changed. The multicolored runes turned to mercury, while the branch arrays that should have been mercury became the main body.

A magnetic voice shattered Cladashi’s confusion. She stiffly turned her head and looked at the sacrifice marked D-503 standing within the main array, and felt an unprecedented horror rise in her heart.

“You, why…”

The BIO specimen before her now had eyes brimming with spirit, and with both hands clasped before him, he was reciting scriptures she had never heard before.

Xia Xiu did not answer. He continued chanting.

The incantation he was reciting now was The Black Sea Proclamation of Jan. This spell ranked very high in the prayer sequence of the Church of Flesh; an antiquated prayer like Cladashi’s could be crowded out without much effort.

Now, Xia Xiu was the one in control of the array.

By then, Lavata’s statue was already covered from head to toe in blood-red stains. Fine flesh sprouts began to emerge from her stone eyes, then multiplied and alternated until a pair of horrifying eyes was formed.

Lavata stared at Xia Xiu. In her eyes countless crimson worms writhed and replaced one another, while at the rims of her sockets tendrils of flesh appeared in ceaseless exchange.

“Pray——”

That strange, weighted syllable echoed through the hall. Everyone except Xia Xiu fell into a state of half-delirium upon hearing it, their minds filled with a demonic cadence and countless inverted images.

Xia Xiu smiled.

This temporary insertion method had been developed in the fourth expansion, distilled by a group of highly whaled players at the cost of many sacrificial items.

Its purpose was simple enough: to interrupt the various rites of the Church of Flesh. The price was being marked by Jan, but the players did not care. They could always pay some newly created novice to take the burden for them. After all, a freshly made account could just be deleted and remade if marked.

Since the market rate for hiring a novice was five hundred, this method also came to be known as “five hundred per run.”

The specific procedure for five hundred per run was as follows:

Prerequisite: a Church of Flesh initiate activates a sacrificial ritual array, which must be driven by prayer and incantation.

Insertion procedure:
1. A concealed non-visual array.
2. Incantation: The Black Sea Proclamation of Jan.
3. Incantation: Lavata Falls and Is Reborn.
4. Several sacrifices, usually the Church of Flesh initiate who activated the array, along with their offerings.

Hidden condition: a performance of breathtaking brilliance. Dance, opera, triumph over the strong while weak, and so on—so long as it pleased Jan and the Four Saints, even the humblest species could obtain incomparable reward.

Ritual effect: gain the Mark of Jan. Its symbols include spirals, broken chains, blood drops, scythes, and Ouroboros, an ancient emblem depicted as a serpent devouring its own tail, symbolizing the endless cycle of life and death.

Fulfill the hidden condition to obtain blessing and lineage.